Full Transcript

Sari 0:00
Welcome to your Food Business Success. This podcast is for early stage entrepreneurs in the package food industry ready to finally turn that delicious idea into reality. I'm your host, Sari Kimbell. I have guided hundreds of food brand founders to success as an industry expert and business coach, and it's got to be fun. In this podcast, I share with you mindset tools to become a true entrepreneur and run your business like a boss, interviews with industry experts to help you understand the business you are actually in, and food founder journey so you can learn what worked and didn't work, and not feel so alone in your own journey. Now let's jump in!

Sari 0:46
Hello and welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited to be here with you today. It's been a little while since it's just been you and me talking, because I had some amazing guests, and they had really pertinent, timely information. I wanted to be sure got to you, but I've missed you. I really missed just sharing some things that are on my mind, maybe some inspiration, things that help you feel more seen, more included, and hopefully inspire you and motivate you. So I'm back, excited to be here with you today, and this podcast, title willing and unwilling is inspired by a very good friend of mine who also has a podcast, and she did this topic, and it was so good. She was talking about being in a relationship, and, like wanting, seeking intimate partnership relationship. And she used this frame of work, of like, what am I willing to do, what am I unwilling to do? And kind of exploring that. And it was so good, but it got me thinking about things in your business, and it's such a good framework to revisit if you already have a business or if you are just launching. And the reason why I think this is really important to do as an exercise is that we don't just want to stumble over ourselves and hope that, you know, we do the right things that we're kind of vaguely willing to do. We actually want to create a more intentional roadmap. We want to say, here's the vision, and then here's the things that align to that, and the things that I am willing to do, the time, the money, the energy, the being brave, like here are the things that I'm willing to do, and if there's some things that you're not willing to do, then it's really good to know that up front so that we can create a more personalized plan that takes all of that into account. And I think part of the problem here is that, as humans, we are emotional beings that think that we're being really rational, and so we love to think of ourselves as like well, in the moment, I'm very logical and I'm doing this for a very good reason, or I'm willing to do this, or unwilling. But the reality is, is that we make decisions based on emotions, and then we justify them with logic and reasoning. There's actually quite a few quotes around this, and I think it even goes all the way back to the Greeks. But as I did a quick search, one of my favorite people, Brene Brown, she says, we like to think we are rational beings who occasionally have an emotion, but we are actually emotional beings who on rare occasions think, meaning we when things come up, we're reacting out of emotion, and we think, just like I'm unwilling to do that. But is that really true? Or are you just scared, or are you just in a belief pattern that you haven't questioned? And as an entrepreneur, you're going to have to do some uncomfortable things. You're gonna have to get out of this comfort zone. So I put together this list of things that have been coming up as I've been noticing, and also just things that I've compiled over the, you know, six years or so of working with CPG founders and working with early just an idea stage folks all the way up to, you know, multiple millions of dollars in revenue, all brands everywhere and anywhere in between. So here's some things to consider and like, and you just get to notice like, would this be on my willing list or my unwilling list? Okay, talk to strangers and make them offers. Learn how to run a business like actually learn how. To understand spreadsheets, do a cash flow statement, do forecasting. Really understand what money is coming in and what money is going out using QuickBooks or other tools to be able to make clear headed financial decisions, not based on emotionality. Are you willing to try scaling your recipe multiple times to finally get it to work? Could be two times, five times, 10 times like, what's your line in there? Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to find support to invest in a community with time and money and energy? Are you willing to find mentors and advisors? Are you willing to give as much as you receive? Are you willing to lose money for a year, two years, three years, five years, ten years? How long are you willing to lose money for? Are you willing to borrow money and from where? Are you willing to borrow money from friends and family? Are you willing to borrow money from your retirement? Are you willing to borrow money from credit cards, from your house? Like you might have some pretty strong emotional reactions when I say those things. And I'm not saying you should be willing to do any or all of those things, but let's just know that ahead of time. Okay, let's make decisions ahead of time about this. Are you willing to send out to learn, first of all, learn Klaviyo or another email platform. Are you willing to send out and try lots of different emails? Are you willing to learn how to do social media well, or are you willing to hire somebody who will help you with those things? Are you willing to be on camera, or are you not. right? And I think it's really good for you to know that ahead of time. Are you willing to make your own product? Are you willing to work with a co packer, very different models, depending on which one you feel like you want, you know you're willing to do at this time? Are you willing to work with multiple co packers, investing lots of money to finally find one that actually works for you? Maybe a true story.

Sari 7:31
Are you willing to learn how to hire people well, to not just hire and then get frustrated and then fire them because they didn't read your mind and then you just should do everything anyway, because you're the only one who can do it well. And we we deal with this inside, Master Your Business. We talk about, we set everything up. Are you willing to set up a company manual? Are you willing to make your processes that are in your head? Are you willing to put them on paper? Are you willing to create those standard operating procedures, and again, we do all of that in Master Your Business. Are you willing to go speak on stage, to go pitch your product, right? To maybe go into a pitch competition, to speak about it at events? Are you willing to work weekends? Are you willing to work evenings? Are you willing to work mornings? I have a client that is unwilling to work after 5pm and on weekends, or they make very rare exceptions. So you get to decide, but it's going to be a very different path. If you're like, absolutely not, I will not work on weekends. It might be a longer path. It might be more investment in other people. It might limit your sales channels. That's all okay.This all goes back to creating a beautiful business that works for you. But are you willing, like, just know your lines ahead of time, as much as possible. Are you willing to invest time, energy, money? Are you willing to do that for your business, and for how long? And what makes this all worthwhile in the end, right? What is the end goal that you truly want, that is enough? That's, you know, maybe it's not the latest, selling to Seattle's food, selling to PepsiCo for millions and millions of dollars. Maybe it's not that. But what are you? What is enough that you are willing to do some hard things? And I will tell you from my own experience, that watching hundreds of people start, grow and scale their packaged food businesses, the more they are willing to make investments early on to get support, to get community around them, to skip the line with people who've already gone this path, who've already walked it, and can give them shortcuts and help them avoid pitfalls. The more people are willing to do that upfront, the faster things go, the more progress they make, and the more they are willing to keep in it, to keep doing the hard things, and to do things that maybe were never on this list, because you couldn't have ever anticipated it, right? But they're willing to be like, alright, oh, I have this opportunity to go to this trade show. I'm willing to make those investments in my business, and these are just such good things to know ahead of time. So I want to encourage you to maybe take my examples and then think about your own or ones you've heard from other founders. Like go find other stories and be like, hmm, am I willing to do that? I remember somebody who used to be on my board, he had a brand that he actually decided to shut down, but he and his wife and partner slept on the co packing floor for multiple nights in a row because they had a deadline to get their product to, I think it was Target, and they were under such pressure, and the co packer was so behind, and they had to make this deadline that they were willing to sleep on cardboard boxes on the floor of the co packer to be able to get this order done. Is that something you're willing to do? Just get curious about it. There's no wrong or right answer here, but it is going to really affect your journey and potentially the end result. So it's good to know, like, do these things actually line up? Is there alignment here? Because I think that's the hardest thing I see when there's a little bit of delusion in here's my goal, but here's what I'm unwilling to do.

Sari 12:02
So the last question I will ask you is, are you willing to make an investment, to get support, to join us in Master Your Business, where you will learn the foundations and the fundamentals of how to scale your business like a boss, you will become the CEO, and you will skip the line to all of this other nonsense. You will really understand what it is going to require of you and make intentional decisions. And you get the annual planning program as a bonus right now, and you get a one on one call with me if you apply by the end of November. So don't put this off if you're like I didn't even know I had to be willing to do all those things and more, because there will be more and more things that come up that you need to be prepared for. Let's get you prepared. Let's make an investment in a program that is there to prepare you for what comes next in your business. Go to masteryourbiz.co to apply there. We'll get on a call and make sure it's a great fit, because I want you to feel as excited about being in the program as I am excited to have you there, it's got to be a good fit both ways. All right, that's what I have for you today. Go out, make that willing and unwilling list. Make sure that unwilling list is really short, and until next time, have an amazing week!

Sari 13:38
The smartest thing you can do as an entrepreneur is to invest in a who to help you with the how, to speed up your journey and help you skip the line. When you are ready for more support and accountability to finally get this thing done, you can work with me in two ways. Get me all to yourself with one on one business coaching. Or join Food Business Success, which includes membership inside Fuel, our community of food business founders that includes monthly live group coaching calls and so much more. It's one of my favorite places to hang out, and I would love to see you there. Go to foodbizsuccess.com to start your journey towards your own food business success.